The Fourth Tier

Book excerpt: The Fourth Tier examines the various roles (leadership tiers) that all leaders must master to be highly effective. These tiers include the leader as a high performing manager, the leader as an expert in their chosen field, and the leader as a builder of teams who are mission driven. The fourth of these leadership tiers involves the ability to provide charismatic leadership to the organization. Charisma is the result of eight specific leadership qualities that can be understood and taught. This book examines each of those eight charismatic leadership attributes in detail. How these charismatic leadership attributes can be learned and how they relate to each other to form a comprehensive view of the charismatic leader are also addressed. An examination of how state agencies assigned to assess and license education leaders address, or fail to address, these charismatic leadership attributes is also explored in detail. The Fourth Tier also examines the important impact and reciprocal relationships that occur between charismatic leaders and those who follow and support charismatic leaders in pursuit of the leader’s mission.